Effects of foreign aid on the institutions of recipient countries. An empirical investigation based on panel data.

The debate about foreign aid effectiveness goes on from decades and is split between those who support the hypothesis of a positive impact of Aid on the institutions and governance of the aid-receiving countries and those who support a pessimistic hypothesis, where aid has a negative influence. This thesis is based on a panel data of 170 developing recipient countries over the years 1993-2015, created to study the magnitude and the direction of foreign aid's effect on the institutions of the receiving countries, measured with the Worldwide Governance Indicators, Political Terror Scale and Freedom House Indicators. Aid is measured as a level and over GDP per capita, and is provided by the source AidData. I consider many types of Aid, including Humanitarian Aid, Institutional Aid, Technical Assistance and Aid from non-DAC countries to see if there are any differences in their effects.